TWMX Race Report: Dallas ’05

Ricky Carmichael is leading the points, Chad Reed is fifth on the all-time 250cc Supercross win list and is the defending champion, but James Stewart won the Dallas Supercross — his first 250cc Supercross win in his third 250cc race, and his second since returning from the broken wrist suffered in practice at the Phoenix Supercross.

If there was any doubt before, there shouldn’t be any now. Bubba is for real.

125cc Qualifiers

Davi Millsaps got a rare holeshot to start the first 125cc heat, but a mistake in the ensuing rhythm section allowed Josh Hansen the opportunity to go by right away. Millsaps worked on Hansen for a couple laps before Hansen apparently got tired of racing him clean and shoved him over the berm after the finish line. Millsaps remounted at the tail end of the top 10 while Hansen took over the lead with Josh Grant on his tail. Grant attempted to make a pass for the lead with an aggressive inside move on Hansen, and they both went down, handing the lead to Troy Adams. Adams went on to win it, followed by Greg Schnell, Davi Millsaps, Kevin Johnson, Brad Ripple, Josh Hansen, Chad Johnson, Branden Jesseman and Tommy Hofmaster. Grant dropped out of the race with a twisted front end. In the tunnel after the race, Hansen gave Grant a shove (more about that on Monday Kickstart tomorrow).

Matt Walker got the holeshot in the second heat, and that was pretty much the race, as Walker got away and his teammate Grant Langston was working his way through the pack. Langston eventually made it into second and finished the race there, followed by Ryan Mills, Steve Boniface, Kelly Smith, Tucker Hibbert, Justin Buckelew, Brock Sellards, and Jeff Dement.

Jacob Saylor, Shawn Clark, Randy Valade and Tyson Hadsell rounded out the main event qualifiers in the LCQ.

250cc Qualifiers

Kyle Lewis grabbed the heat-one holeshot over Chad Reed, but Reed made short work of the wily veteran and absconded with the lead shortly thereafter, with Kevin Windham giving chase. Windham actually attempted a couple of passes on Reed, but couldn’t quite make them stick before he settled for second. Reed went on to win, followed by Windham, Andrew Short and Ernesto Fonseca.

James Stewart got the holeshot in the second 250cc heat, followed by Ricky Carmichael, David Vuillemin and Mike LaRocco. As Stewart raced comfortably out front, Brian Mason went down in a blind area after a double, and Carmichael landed square on his bike. Out of shape, Carmichael made it over the small double that followed, but crashed pretty hard in the corner, handing second to Vuillemin, third to LaRocco and the final transfer spot to Heath Voss.

Jay Marmont got out quickest in the first semi, but it wasn’t long before Travis Pastrana went by for the lead. The remarkable thing is that Pastrana had crashed so hard in his heat race that it looked like he would definitely be done for the night — and after the race, he pointed out that he didn’t even remember the semi. Late in the race, Pastrana was passed by Sebastien Tortelli for the lead. Pastrana finished second, with Marmont third, Honda-mounted Ryan Clark fourth and Tyler Evans fifth.

After the race, the out-of-sorts Pastrana went back to his truck dizzy, and began to vomit. He dropped out for the night before receiving 20 stitches to his knee from his heat-race crash.

Carmichael got the semi-two holeshot, and he led Travis Preston, Jason Thomas, Joe Oehlhof and Cole Siebler into the main event.

Timmy Ferry and Damon Huffman rounded out the final qualifiers through the LCQ.

125cc Main

Boniface got the holeshot in the main event, followed by Langston, Walker, Smith and Millsaps, but by the end of the second lap, Langston had the lead, and that’s the last anyone would see of him, as the South African checked out. It took Millsaps until the fifth lap to find a way around Boniface for second, andd by then, Langston enjoyed a comfortable lead. Millsaps chipped away at the lead, but he could never get close enough to make a move. Langston took the win, followed 2.5 seconds later by Millsaps, then 20 seconds after that Walker crossed the line. Hansen was a further 9 seconds back. Then came Boniface, Adams, Smith, Sellards, Mills and Schnell.

250cc Main

James Stewart got his first official Butterfinger Holeshot Award in the 250cc class to start the main event. Carmichael was right on his tail, followed closely by Reed, and Reed knifed under Carmichael aggressively into second in the first turn, and that’s how the top three sat for the majority of the main. For the first seven laps, Stewart pulled out an 8-second lead, but then Reed and Carmichael began to reel the 19-year-old back in. After a few laps, Stewart made the necessary adjustments and pulled back away, eventually winning by over five seconds. However, on the last lap, as Reed attempted to lap Travis Preston, Preston made an unexpected move and caused Reed to crash, handing over second to Carmichael, who was right on Reed’s tail. Reed recovered for third, followed by Tortelli and LaRocco.